Parliament deputies voted by 67 to eight on 19 November to strip their
colleague, fugitive former Interior Minister Vano Siradeghian, of his
deputy's mandate on the grounds that there is no valid justification for
his failure to attend parliament sessions for a period of 19 months,
RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. Siradeghian fled Armenia in April 2000
after parliament voted to strip him of his deputy's immunity so he could be
taken into custody for the duration of his trial on charges of ordering
several political murders (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 4 April 2000). In an
earlier ballot last month, only 36 deputies favored depriving Siradeghian
of his mandate (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 10 October 2001). Observers
attribute the reversal to intense lobbying by the presidential
administration and to the fact that the 19 November vote was open while
that on 10 October was secret. LF

Poghos Poghosian, the Georgian citizen found dead in a Yerevan cafe two
months ago after having apparently been beaten up by members of President
Robert Kocharian's bodyguard, died from a blow to the head, according to
Arminfo on 19 November as cited by Groong. Police originally claimed that
Poghosian died of heart failure (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 27 September and 2
October 2001). LF

[03] ARMENIAN OPPOSITION FIGURE SAYS HE WILL RUN FOR PRESIDENT IN 2003

Union of Constitutional Law chairman Hrant Khachatrian announced on 17
November that he plans to contest the presidential poll due in the spring
of 2003, according to Arminfo as cited by Groong. At the same time,
Khachatrian said that in order to avoid a repeat of the situation in 1998,
when the electorate was "bewildered" by the number of candidates contesting
the preterm presidential ballot, he would welcome the unification of all
"healthy" political forces in order to back a single candidate. Khachatrian
was one of 12 candidates who participated in the 1998 presidential
election; he polled less than 1 percent of the vote. LF

One member of the ruling Yeni Azerbaycan Party and one independent
candidate won election to Azerbaijan's Milli Mezhlis in by-elections in the
Agdjabed and Tovuz raions on 16 November, Turan reported. LF

Four police officers, including former Tbilisi police chief Soso Alavidze,
took parliament deputy Gocha Djodjua from his home to a lake on the
outskirts of Tbilisi on 18 November and proceeded to beat him up, Djodjua
told Caucasus Press the following day. Djodjua said that Alavidze believes
that Djodjua's statements to the media earlier this year about corruption
within the Tbilisi police force led to Alavidze's dismissal from his post.
Alavidze in fact resigned three months ago after being implicated in
corruption by then-Justice Minister Mikhail Saakashvili (see "RFE/RL
Newsline," 20 August 2001). On 19 November, Alavidze denied participating
in the assault on Djodjua and declined to answer questions about the
incident from members of parliament committees on the grounds that he was
unwell. Caucasus Press quoted Alavidze on 20 November as saying that he has
resigned as head of the Ecology Police in order not to hinder the
investigation into the attack on Djodjua. LF

Eduard Shevardnadze told journalists in Tbilisi on 19 November that at his
planned meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin he will ask
Putin to lift the visa requirement for Georgian citizens visiting Russia
that went into force last year, Russian agencies reported. Shevardnadze
said introducing the visa regime was "a mistake." It was Putin, then-
Russian Prime Minister, who in November 1999 first proposed the visa regime
(see "RFE/RL Newsline," 5 November 1999). LF

An investigation must be conducted into Kodori Governor Emzar Kvitsiani's
allegation that someone within the Georgian security services provided
Russia with information on the course of the fighting last month in Kodori,
Georgian National Intelligence Service chief Avtandil Ioseliani said in an
interview published in "Akhali taoba" on 15 November (see "RFE/RL Newsline,
" 14 November 2001). On 19 November, "Akhali taoba" quoted Kvitsiani as
saying he is ready to publish his proof of those allegations and to work
together with Valeri Khaburzania, President Shevardnadze's proposed
candidate for the post of national security minister, to identify the
official concerned. Shevardnadze, for his part, said on 19 November that he
cannot punish anyone for that deliberate leak of information without
documentary evidence, Caucasus Press reported. He said Khaburzania's
approval as national security minister would guarantee an improvement in
the work of the ministry. The same day, Shevardnadze rejected a proposal to
introduce that military censorship, Caucasus Press reported. LF

Some 1,000 residents of Tbilisi one of the city's blocked main
thoroughfares on 19 November to demand that the government guarantee
electricity supplies to their homes for at least eight hours per day,
instead of the present three-four hours, Caucasus Press reported. They
appealed to the entire city population to take to the streets to demand the
resignation of a president who is unable to guarantee normal electricity
supplies. A similar demonstration took place on 20 November. LF

Sergei Karaganov, who heads Russia's influential Foreign Policy and Defense
Council, claimed in an interview with gazeta.ru that Georgia has resold to
Turkey natural gas supplied by Russia, according to Caucasus Press on 16
November. LF

[10] INCUMBENT TROUNCED IN INCONCLUSIVE PRESIDENTIAL POLL IN SOUTH OSSETIA

The unrecognized Republic of South Ossetia held presidential elections on
18 November in which none of the five candidates polled the minimum 50
percent needed for a first round victory. According to unofficial
preliminary results, Moscow-based businessman Eduard Kokoev won over 40
percent of the vote followed by local Communist Party First Secretary
Stanislav Kochiev with 25 percent. The two men will participate in a runoff
vote that must be held within two weeks. Incumbent President Lyudvig
Chibirov was in third place with less than 20 percent. LF

During a telephone conversation on 15 November, Nursultan Nazarbaev
discussed with his Tajik counterpart Imomali Rakhmonov regional security
and the optimum structure for a post-conflict Afghan government, Asia Plus-
Blitz reported on 16 November. Nazarbaev agreed to provide humanitarian aid
to Afghanistan in the form of grain. On 16 November, Interfax reported that
the U.S. has purchased 15,000 tons of grain at a cost of $6 million from
Kazakhstan to be shipped to Afghanistan, and intends to buy a further 5,000
tons. Kazakhstan's grain harvest this year was one of the best ever,
totaling over 13 million tons, according to Interfax on 22 October. LF

Nazarbaev and Rakhmonov also agreed on the "immediate" resumption of rail
traffic between the two countries, Asia Plus-Blitz reported on 16 November.
Kazakhstan unilaterally suspended rail communication in late October in
order to preclude an anticipated influx of Afghan refugees. On 12 November,
Asia Plus-Blitz reported that as a result of the suspension of rail traffic
from Dushanbe to Astrakhan via Kazakhstan, flights between Dushanbe and
Moscow were fully booked for one month ahead. LF

The People's Assembly (the upper chamber of Kyrgyzstan's bicameral
parliament) approved the draft budget for 2002 on 19 November, RFE/RL's
Bishkek bureau reported. The draft envisages revenues of 11.69 billion soms
(approximately $244 million) and expenditures of 11.17 billion soms. GDP is
estimated at 80.19 billion soms, or 4.5 percent higher than in 2001.
Inflation is predicted at 6 percent, lower than the 8.2 percent forecast in
the original draft presented to the parliament's finance and economy
committee last month (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 16 October 2001). The budget
is predicated on an exchange rate of 49 soms to the U.S. dollar; the
present exchange rate is 47.7 soms to the dollar. Also on 19 November,
Defense Minister Esen Topoev told Interfax that the budget for next year
increases defense spending by more than 170 million soms. That money will
be spent on modernizing aircraft, purchasing communications equipment and
improving border installations, and raising servicemen's salaries. LF

The Legislative Assembly (the lower chamber of parliament) on 19 November
passed amendments prepared by the government's Committee on State Property
and Foreign Investments to the law on free-economic zones, RFE/RL's Bishkek
bureau reported. The amendments, which were prepared at the insistence of
international finance organizations, require enterprises located within the
free-economic zone to pay customs payments and taxes on goods they sell
within Kyrgyzstan. Busurmankul Toktonaliev of the Bishkek free-economic
zone told RFE/RL that some 50 percent of the goods produced by its 90
enterprises are sold domestically, and the new regulations could drive them
into bankruptcy. LF

The founding congress of the Vahdat (Unity) Party took place in Dushanbe on
17 November, Asia Plus-Blitz reported on 20 November. In a statement
released at the congress, delegates acknowledged the progress achieved by
the country's present leadership towards establishing a democratic society,
but noted unspecified problems that it pledged to assist the leadership in
overcoming. LF

The OSCE's Daan Everts announced in Prishtina on 19 November that Ibrahim
Rugova's Democratic League of Kosova (LDK) took 46.29 percent of the total
vote and first place in the province's first democratic parliamentary
elections, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline,"
16 and 19 November 2001). Second place in the 17 November vote went to
Hashim Thaci's Democratic Party of Kosova with 25.54 percent. Third place
was claimed by the Serbian Povratak (Return) coalition, which took 10.96
percent and at least 20 seats in the 120-seat legislature. Ramush
Haradinaj's ethnic Albanian Alliance for the Future of Kosova garnered 7.8
percent. Thaci and Haradinaj are former guerrilla leaders. Thaci told
Deutsche Welle's Albanian Service that he is glad that the elections have
given his party a strong position in the overall political landscape, while
Haradinaj said that his party is open to cooperation with others. Observers
suggest that the Serbian bloc could also play a key role in a legislature
in which no single party will have a clear majority. PM

Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Nebojsa Covic, who is Belgrade's point man
for Kosova, said on 19 November that the federal government's committee
dealing with that province will be reorganized and incorporated into the
existing Coordinating Center, which will then be Belgrade's sole official
body for Kosovar affairs, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. Personnel
changes will be made at the expense of those who called for a boycott of
the 17 November vote. Covic stressed the importance of a "unity of views"
of officials dealing with Kosova. PM

In Mitrovica on 19 November, the Serbian National Council (SNV) met and
agreed that the elections had proceeded in an orderly fashion and pledged
to work with all who seek to solve the problems of Kosova's Serbs, RFE/RL's
South Slavic Service reported. But Marko Jaksic, a local Serb leader who
had campaigned for a boycott, remained unimpressed with the election
results. He told AP: "These elections were a sloppily written love story in
which everyone is supposed to have a happy ending." PM

State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said in a statement in Washington
on 19 November: "We urge Kosovo's new leaders to continue working closely
with the international community, and to avoid any action that may threaten
that relationship, particularly with respect to Kosovo's final status...
Kosovo's newly elected leaders will need to build effective coalitions that
give smaller groups and parties a stake in governing. Assembly
members...must work together to resolve common issues and seek agreement
and compromise in place of conflict," Reuters reported. PM

The Foreign Ministry said in a statement in Moscow on 20 November that
Kosova's "non-Albanian residents are concerned that under nearly two to two
and one-half years of international supervision, no solution has been found
to the problems of security, the return of refugees, and access to
elementary aspects of civilized society -- education, health care, culture,
and information... The main responsibility for moving the process of
settlement forward lies with international bodies, primarily the UN mission,
which must fulfill its obligation...in accordance with UN Security Council
Resolution 1244," Reuters reported. The resolution specifies that Kosova is
part of Yugoslavia. PM

Vienna's "Die Presse" wrote on 20 November that the time has come to end
the international community's "dithering" and trying to be all things to
all sides (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 6 and 16 November 2001). The
foreigners deny the Serbs' demand for their own police lest the Albanians
resort to violence, while at the same time denying the demand of all
Albanian parties for independence. This equivocating cannot continue
forever, and the question of Kosova's status must be addressed, the daily
concludes. The "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" notes that there will be no
solution to the problem of Albanian restiveness throughout the Balkans as
long as the status of Kosova remains unclear. The daily argues that a well-
supervised independence for Kosova is probably the best of several possible
options from the standpoint of Balkan security and stability. PM

Slobodan Krapovic has arrived in Beijing for talks on increased military
cooperation between the two countries, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service
reported on 19 November. He and his hosts noted a close similarity of views
on terrorism and other, unspecified issues. PM

Republika Srpska President Mirko Sarovic, Prime Minister Mladen Ivanic, and
parliamentary speaker Dragan Kalinic are in Moscow on a visit scheduled to
last until 23 November, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported on 19
November. They are guests of State Duma Speaker Gennadii Seleznev and will
attend meetings at the Russian State Duma, the Foreign Ministry, the
Defense Ministry, and the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade,
Interfax reported. On the agenda are expanding trade and economic
cooperation, as well as discussions of political and security issues. PM

Wolfgang Petritsch, who is the international community's high
representative in Bosnia-Herzegovina, wrote in "The New York Times" of 20
November that "much has been made of the residual influence of the
mujahedeen fighters who stayed on in Bosnia and Herzegovina after the 1992-
95 war. But no evidence has been produced that the country has served as a
base for Al-Qaeda, although this cannot be excluded; after all, the
organization had an active cell in Hamburg. Allegations made by some Serb
extremists that the wars in the former Yugoslavia were fought to fend off
Muslim fundamentalism are ridiculous -- was Mr. Milosevic at war with
mullahs when his forces bombarded Dubrovnik? What is truly worthy of note
is that the influence of fundamentalist Islam in the Balkans has been so
weak. When we step beyond the us-and-them paradigm, we might remember that
Islam is part of the European tradition. This is the larger context in
which the small country of Bosnia and Herzegovina must prove that peaceful
coexistence of Islam and Christianity is possible. More than ever, it needs
Europe's support in doing so." PM

Petritsch also wrote in "The New York Times" of 20 November that "the
Dayton Peace Agreement ensures that no statelets will emerge in Bosnia
based on the religious divide... Bosnian Muslims do not feel any less
European than their Croatian or Serbian countrymen... In the long term,
Europe must integrate Bosnia and Herzegovina into its political, social,
and economic structures. A first concrete step is Bosnia and Herzegovina's
accession to the Council of Europe, which is expected to take place early
next year. A second step is to continue toward greater formal association
with the European Union. Bosnia is the place to render the notion of a
clash of civilizations null and void and to prove that democracy, freedom,
and human rights are universal." PM

The IMF demands the reduction of state expenditures by $9 million before
Macedonia can be included in the Staff Monitoring Program, the Skopje daily
"Nova Makedonija" reported on 20 November. Macedonia's observance of IMF
recommendations is a precondition for an international donors conference,
which will help reconstruct the economy after the 11-month conflict. The
government hopes the donors conference will take place in Brussels in mid-
December. As the newspaper reports, the government expects the conference
to raise between $52.6 and $83.3 million in assistance. UB

International War Crimes Tribunal Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte will
visit Macedonia on 20 November, "Nova Makedonija" reported. She will meet
President Boris Trajkovski and Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski as well as
with representatives of the international community. She will collect
information about alleged war crimes committed by both sides and about
reported mass graves (see also "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 9 November 2001). UB

Baroness Emma Nicholson, who is the European Parliament rapporteur for
Romania, met on 20 November with Prime Minister Adrian Nastase and will
later meet with President Ion Iliescu, Romanian radio reported.
Governmental spokesman Claudiu Lucaciu cited Nicholson as saying that
Romania's negotiating position with the EU has "significantly improved" in
the last year and that she expects the country's economic performance to
further improve due to growth in investments. Nastase said Romania wants to
open for negotiations all chapters in the aquis communautaire by end of
2002. On 19 November, Nicholson told members of the Senate's Foreign
Affairs Commission that she has requested that Guenter Verheugen -- the EU
commissioner for enlargement -- open for negotiation all chapters Romania
may wish to open by 25 December. She said Verheugen has agreed to do so.
Nicholson also congratulated Foreign Minister Mircea Geoana on his
performance as OSCE rotating chairman. MS

Senate Chairman Nicolae Vacaroiu on 20 November arrived in the Philippines,
Romanian radio reported. The previous day he ended his visit of South Korea
-- the second leg of his trip after Japan -- where he conducted talks with
Prime Minister Lee Han-dong, discussing mainly Korean investment in his
country and ways to overcome the crisis at the Craiova-based Daewoo
Romanian carmaker. Also discussed were possibilities of Korean
participation in the construction of units 2 and 3 at the Cernavoda nuclear
power plant, Romanian television reported. MS

The Senate on 19 November approved with a vote of 62 for and 44 against the
government's ordinance to set up a Dracula Park entertainment complex at
Sighisoara, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. The project was opposed by
representatives of the National Liberal Party and the Greater Romania Party,
which want the park, aimed at regenerating tourist interest in Romania, to
be built near the Bran castle in the vicinity of Brasov (see "End Note" in
"RFE/RL Newsline," 19 November 2001).

Visiting Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin and his Russian counterpart
Vladimir Putin signed in Moscow on 19 November the new basic treaty between
their countries, local and international agencies reported. They also held
discussions on matters of mutual interest, after which Voronin said their
views were "either close or coincide," including on the need to fight
international terrorism. Putin said after the signing ceremony that he is
"personally convinced that it is in Russia's national interest to settle
the Transdniester conflict on the basis of Moldova's territorial integrity
and sovereignty, while respecting the interests of all ethnic groups living
in Moldova, including [those living in] Transdniester." The treaty mentions
the need to politically settle the conflict and condemns "separatism in all
its forms," pledging that the sides will not support separatist movements.
The document also stipulates "measures will be taken to satisfy the need
for Russian-language instruction" in Moldova, and Voronin said he wants
"all Moldovans to speak Russian." MS

Voronin also met on 19 November with Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, with
whom he discussed the settlement of Moldova's debt for Russian gas
deliveries, ITAR-TASS reported. The agency said the debt is now $912
million, including $672 million for gas deliveries to the Transdniester. It
also reported that the two leaders discussed the possibility of a partial
payment in Moldovan corporate shares in wineries and the tobacco industry,
which make up some 90 percent of Moldovan exports to Russia. Ways of
boosting economic ties were also discussed. MS

Official results released by the Central Electoral Commission on 20
November confirmed that Socialist Party leader Georgi Parvanov has won the
18 November presidential runoff, BTA and international agencies reported.
Parvanov garnered 54.13 percent, while outgoing President Petar Stoyanov
was backed by 45.87 percent of the vote. Turnout was 55 percent. MS

President-elect Parvanov told Reuters on 19 November that there will be
"maximum continuity in our foreign policy, especially where it concerns
European and Euro-Atlantic integration." Reacting to recent rumors in
diplomatic circles that at NATO's next 2002 Prague summit the organization
might grant immediate membership to only a small group and invite a larger
group to start membership talks and join after meeting criteria, Parvanov
said this will be a "minimal program" and that he hopes for outright
membership. "For us it is not simply a recognition [of cooperation with
NATO], but also an important guarantee of our security in the constant
tensions of the Balkans." He said the country's biggest problem is poverty
and unemployment and its biggest advantages are its geopolitical position
and its hard-working people. Parvanov said he was ready to work with
Premier Simeon Saxecoburggotski in a "constructive manner" despite the
ruling party's support of outgoing President Stoyanov in the presidential
elections. Parvanov also said he will give up membership of the Bulgarian
Socialist Party because the president must be "the head of state of all
Bulgarians." MS

Ukraine's new election law, which finally came into force on 2 November,
preserves the 50:50 split in how deputies are to be elected that was used
during the March 1998 elections, even though President Leonid Kuchma had
expressed concern that not only well-known reformist parties, but also
Ukraine's largest party, the Communist Party of Ukraine (CPU), would gain
from the retention of proportional lists.

Between the 1994 elections, held exclusively on the majoritarian principle,
and the 1998 majoritarian proportional elections, the number of CPU
deputies increased by 50 percent, from 80 to nearly 120. If the new
election law had required that 75 percent of deputies be elected according
to proportional voting, as established parties such as the CPU had pushed
for, the number of Communist deputies would have risen again in the next
parliament.

Ukraine's first political party was the Republicans, created in April 1990
as an outgrowth of the Helsinki Union, itself a descendant from the Soviet-
era Ukrainian Helsinki Group (UHG). Since 1990, 129 more parties have been
registered in Ukraine, a reflection not of the progress of democratization
but of a badly fractured and manipulated political system. The
parliamentary newspaper "Holos Ukraiiny" recently wrote: "The current
regime controls the course of political events and is therefore preventing
the different opposition parties from uniting."

Ukraine's multiparty system includes an eclectic array ranging from three
rural parties, seven promoting peace and unity, five that aim to defend
women's interests, four youth parties, and 21 championing narrow special
interests (cars, pensioners, educators, industrialists, health, private
property, regions, social justice, the sea, consumers, NGOs, private
property, the third millennium, liberty, and small and medium business,
among others).

The center has been completely dominated by the "oligarchs," as seen by
the recent absorption of the Inter-Regional Bloc of Reforms by the Peoples
Democrats (NDPU). These oligarch parties control six parties: Labor Ukraine,
NDPU, Agrarians, United Social Democrats, Democratic Party, and Democratic
Union. Obviously, their names have little to do with their real party
objectives. What remains of the centrists includes three Liberal and four
other miniscule parties while the center-left is divided among eight
parties, the majority of whom are "social democratic" to varying degrees.
The Greens, meanwhile, are divided among eight parties who include every
imaginable combination of "ecology" or "green" in their names.

On the center-right, Ukraine's party system has three Rukhs and 14 other
center-right parties espousing "patriotic" or "fatherland" interests, as
well as seven Christian democratic and one Muslim party. The extreme right
has five parties, three of which have illegal paramilitary formations. The
Russophile-pan-Slavic wing is badly divided among nine quarrelling, small
parties while the extreme left, their natural allies, have 10 parties, five
of which include "Communist" in their titles.

Ukraine's older law on political parties was updated and came into force
on 5 April of this year. Surprisingly, it does not stipulate any minimum
number of members for a party to be registered. But by not imposing any
restrictions on the registration of parties, no matter how small or
ineffectual they are, the executive ensures that Ukraine's nascent
democracy remains weak and disparate.

When submitting registration documents, parties do have to collect 10,000
signatures from those eligible to vote, but that is not a difficult task.
To prevent the rise of regional and secessionist parties, these signatures
have to be collected in two-thirds of Ukraine's oblasts, the cities of Kyiv
and Sevastopol (which have all-republican status), and the districts of
Crimea. The aim of the law is to create parties that supposedly have an all-
Ukrainian status, yet the law fails to ensure this as none of the 130
parties in Ukraine has an all-Ukrainian profile.

Another aspect of the law that is ineffective is its failure to enforce
restrictions on the formation and operation of parties (Article 5). Parties
are to be prohibited if their programs or activities aim to liquidate
Ukrainian independence, forcefully change the constitution or undermine
national security, encroach on human rights, maintain paramilitary
formations, or if they violate Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial
integrity. Yet each one of these prohibitions has been infringed by one
party or another.

The CPU together with small Russophile, pan-Slavic parties want to
liquidate Ukrainian independence. Recently, President Kuchma branded the
CPU as "anti-Ukrainian" because it uses the symbols of a non-existent state
(USSR). He added that he cannot therefore understand why the CPU is allowed
into parliament. In reality, Kuchma would prefer to have the CPU legally
registered, as it has proved to be a convenient scapegoat both for the
socioeconomic crisis (its deputies dominated parliament until 2000 and have
stalled reforms) and during the "Kuchmagate" crisis when CPU deputies
allied with the oligarchs against the reformist government of Viktor
Yushchenko.

Only one party has ever been temporarily banned in Ukraine, the extreme
right Ukrainian National Assembly (UNA), after its members took part in
Kyiv riots during the funeral of Patriarch Volodymyr Romaniuk of the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyiv Patriarch in July 1995. But this ban was
revoked after two years and the party was reregistered. Although its
leaders were arrested after the 9 March anti-Kuchma riots and remain in
prison, the UNA is still legal.

Paramilitary formations are usually registered as innocuous sports or
cultural civic organizations, not parties. UNA has always had a
paramilitary formation, the People's Self Defense Forces (UNSO), which have
been involved in fighting or political violence in Abkhazia, Moldova,
Chechnya, and Belarus. The Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists also has its
S. Bandera Sports-Political Association Tryzub, which is reportedly under
the control of the local authorities in western Ukraine and is therefore
not likely to be banned. Pro-Kuchma Tryzub members from Ternopil were the
real instigators of the 9 March violence in Kyiv, for which the anti-Kuchma
UNA-UNSO were made the scapegoats; no Tryzub members were arrested for
their actions. In addition, there is the Union of Soviet Officers, whose
pensioner members the Security Service accused earlier this year of
planning a coup d'etat. Ukrainian and Russophile Cossack groups also exist.

The law on political parties has never been invoked to ban separatist
parties in the Crimea. Nevertheless, the law has forced them to reregister
as all-Ukrainian parties (e.g. the Crimean Russian Bloc became the Soyuz
[Union] party). Other Crimean parties who represented the local Party of
Power were absorbed into all-Ukrainian oligarch parties.

But Ukraine's many political parties play little or no role in politics
and have miniscule influence on public life, a state of affairs that the
executive is only too happy to allow to continue. "Kuchmagate" has
nonetheless been instrumental in creating three groupings that will go into
the next elections as the antistatehood left, the pro-Kuchma oligarch-
dominated center, and the anti-Kuchma patriotic center-left and center-
right. Yushchenko's "Our Ukraine" bloc hopes to successfully occupy the
middle ground between the pro- and anti-Kuchma camps, presenting itself as
a patriotic, anti-oligarch, pro-Kuchma formation.

Taras Kuzio is a research associate at the Centre for Russian and East
European Studies, University of Toronto.